It All Began With Black Beauty
by Essy Lasaylan
Summary: “Mr and Mrs Dolloway were good people who loved their daughter, Myrtle. Nonetheless, they felt they’d have done a better job of mourning her death if she hadn’t been slumped in an armchair, glaring at them and complaining about how bored she was.”


This story is about Moaning Myrtle during the months that preceded her death and the years that passed afterwards. I'll be answering some of those burning questions, like 'Why didn't Myrtle see Ginny Weasley opening the chamber?' and 'What really happened at Olive Hornby's brother's wedding?'  
  
Both praise and criticism are welcomed.  
  
  
  
"She was supposed to be keeping cave," the dark haired girl told her friend. "But the rotten speccy little mudblood just stood by and watched while Professor Crumbledore walked in and caught me. He threatened to take away my badge!"  
  
Olive tore her glance away from her reflection for just long enough to eye her prefect badge protectively, before returning her attention to her hair.  
  
"What did she have to say for herself?" Asked her friend in an accent which contained a trace of Eastern Europe.  
  
"Oh, she said she had her nose stuck in a book and didn't notice him. Total rubbish of course, she did it out of spite. I'd a mind to hex her nose off her spotty little face, but the ticking off from Crumble made me late for Charms."  
  
"We can get her later," suggested the other girl. "I'll hold her down and you can try out the unforgiveables on her. It'll be fun!"  
  
"That's sweet of you Tash, but I'm already in trouble. We need something more subtle. I think I'm going to spend next period in the restricted section researching undetectable poisons. Interested?"  
  
"Of course!"  
  
Olive smiled nastily and smoothed an imagined stray hair back into place.  
  
"It's just so fucking annoying that she managed to get me into trouble when she's such a nothing. Daddy would be livid if he knew I was having anything to do with her. It's bad enough that I'm consorting with a half-blood and palling around with you."  
  
"Me?" Natasha gave her friend a look of outrage. Bending down, she scanned the gap under the cubicle doors for the legs of potential listeners before continuing. "I'm pureblood you rotten cow, and royal to boot!"  
  
Olive shrugged apologetically. "I know that and you know that, but until those bloody commies give your mummy her country back, I can't very well tell my father, can I?"  
  
Natasha accepted the apology, evidently more interested in discussing boys than the homeland she had never seen.  
  
"Did you say consorting with halfbloods? Have things between you and Tom stepped up then?"  
  
Olive smiled happily. "He says I'm the best thing that's ever happened to him and he's going to marry me someday!"  
  
"Your father's going to have kittens."  
  
"Possibly," Olive admitted, "but Tom is a Slytherin and a prefect and that still counts for something. Plus Conrad wrote home telling Daddy that Tom was a good egg."  
  
"That was decent of him."  
  
"Yes, Con can be quite helpful when the mood strikes him." Olive finished preening and turned away from the mirror. "Want to see if it's striking him now? Crumbledore confiscated all my fags. It'll be ages till I can get more from home."  
  
"I thought we were working on ways of poisoning your mudblood?"  
  
"We can do that afterwards. Come on, let's go find my brother."  
  
The two girls walked out.  
  
  
  
After a long silence a pair of legs appeared under one of the cubicle doors as Myrtle Dolloway got down from the toilet she'd been crouching on.  
  
Only back at school for four days and already Olive Hornby and her stuck up friends were picking on her. That had to be some sort of new record.  
  
Myrtle went over to the sinks to wash her face, when a way of getting back at them occurred to her.  
  
Myrtle may not have been a pureblood, but she read the papers...  
  
*****  
  
Two weeks into the term, acting on an anonymous tip-off, a team from the department of Mysteries called Natasha out of a Herbology lesson and disappeared with her.  
  
Word quickly got around the school that Tash and her mother had been the last surviving members of the Russian royal family and had been extradited to the USSR for trial and possible execution for 'Crimes Against The People'. Olive was furious with Myrtle, but she couldn't prove anything. 


End file.
